India vs South Africa 2021-22, 2nd ODI: KL Rahul wins toss and opts to bat; moves in with unchanged XI
India and South Africa are locking horns in the second ODI on Friday. KL Rahul has won the toss and opted to bat first. India is trailing the three-match series 0-1.
FollowAfter a thrilling outing in the opening One-Day International (ODI), India and South Africa face off in the second ODI at the Boland Park in Paarl on Friday. Indian skipper KL Rahul has won the toss and opted to bat first. The visitors lost the opening ODI by 31 runs and is trailing in the three-match series 1-2, as it happens to be a do-or-die encounter for them.
After winning the toss, Rahul reckoned that India would need to put runs on the board and expect the pitch to slow down as the game progresses. He also pondered that lack of runs from the middle-order was a learning from the last game and expected a better show from the batters in this game. Meanwhile, he refrained from making any playing XI changes and moved in with the same XI from the first ODI.
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On the other hand, South African captain Temba Bavuma measured, "We probably wanted to bat first, like KL said it's pretty straightforward with the nature of the wicket. I think there will be an opportunity in the first hour with the ball swinging and nipping a bit if we can take a couple of wickets and put them under pressure. I wouldn't say it was a perfect game (in the opening ODI), but I will take that result."
"It's just to get better from last game and try and find a way to improve, and we have a better understanding of the wicket and what type of skills that we need. We are going to have to do the basics well. One change for us: Sisanda comes in for Jansen. Marco had a big workload in the Test series and felt he was flat in the first game. We got full confidence in Magala," Bavuma concluded.
Playing XI
IND: KL Rahul (c & wk), Shikhar Dhawan, Virat Kohli, Rishabh Pant (wk), Shreyas Iyer, Venkatesh Iyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Shardul Thakur, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal.
SA: Quinton de Kock (wk), Janneman Malan, Temba Bavuma (c), Aiden Markram, Rassie van der Dussen, David Miller, Andile Phehlukwayo, Keshav Maharaj, Lungi Ngidi, Sisanda Magala and Tabraiz Shamsi.
